the international situation

[fpb]

So far, Western politicians and commentators have one and all proved utterly incompetent in understanding anything that was going on in the Arabic world. It's been amateur hour for weeks, and while the ugly rape of that American journalist seems to have calmed some of the more stupid enthusiasms, the very fact that everyone was sure Gheddafi was doomed from the moment Bengasi rose up shows that the stupid had not gone away. In this climate, I can only say that Obama's policy of reluctance was probably as good as anything that could have been done. At least he has not been swept away by the folly of his country's commentators. And at least he can now say to everyone else: "I have only helped in what everyone else wanted to do." Collective amnesia of the kind that frustrated Bush II is rather less likely this time - though, given the abyss of international hypocrisy that accompanies the folly of commentators and politicians, hardly impossible.

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PS: of my two countries, Italy's media defy description, while Britain's are dominated by Rupert Murdoch and the BBC - neither of whom has anything wrong that a couple of thermonuclear devices couldn't cure. So I'm not going to criticize American media - ours are at the very least as bad.